My midlife crisis (Pt. 2)

[LoneWolf]

Soooo.yeah.

 

I had to sell at least one car. And as I looked at my paid-off Honda Civic, and late-WoLW's Subaru, while either would do, I really like driving, and neither was "exactly" what I wanted.  The Civic was great, but wasn't a hatch (really useful at this point). The Subaru is great in almost everything it does, but lacks a certain zip I really enjoy from the Civic. I mean, verve. Panache. So I started toying around to see if any hatchbacks checked fun and (semi) sensible at the same time.

Volkswagen Golf GTI? No. Repair and maintenance costs, requires premium fuel, pricier than I'd want.

Honda Civic Sport Touring? Sadly, no. There's an issue with the turbo engine with gas mixing with the oil (especially if the car doesn't get fully warm) that hasn't been resolved, and can cause premature engine wear and problems (my Civic is not the turbo; I went with the i-VTEC engine, slightly less sporty, but fun and proven tech at the time).

Subaru WRX?  Not a hatchback, requires premium fuel.

Wait...what's this? Made only two years ('19-20) in the States and getting a little hard to find...but...(research)...there's a year-old certified pre-owned one with under 8,000 miles 90 minutes away? And it's in one of the two best colors for the year? How did I miss the existence of this vehicle?

The 2019 Hyundai Elantra GT N-Line "warm" hatch in Summit gray, with the Tech package. 1.6L, 201hp, 195ft-lbs of torque -on regular gas. 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission with manual mode. 0-60 in 6 seconds. Tons of rear cargo room. And with the tech package, more features than you can shake a stick at. I had to try it and find out.

It sticks like glue to the pavement in hairpin turns and pins a smile on your face wider than the Joker, and it's still practical, reasonably priced, and has everything. 8-speaker Infiniti sound system with subwoofer. Ventilated leather seats. Six-way power-adjust drivers seat with adjustable lumbar support. Carplay. Adaptive cruise control, and a bajillion other things and it looks like a million bucks and costs less than a Volkswagen GTI.

So yeah, @Philander Seabury The tattoo was kind of a part one.  This will be part two (final); the other two cars will go to good homes. I posted the Civic last night on Craigslist and I think I already have seven excited e-mails before I can even get it cleaned up and grab the title out of the file drawer.

[Square Wheels]

Yay!

[jsharr ★]

Nice.  Congratulations 

[Dirtyhip]

This is a very reasonable mid life crisis.  Good job.  Nice car.

[LoneWolf]

11 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

This is a very reasonable mid life crisis.  Good job.  Nice car.

Thank you.

An unreasonable midlife crisis might be doable, but it would be incredibly shortsighted, we're only (probably) at the middle.

It does do 0-60 in six seconds, though...

[Kzoo]

Good for you.

[Dirtyhip]

1 minute ago, LoneWolf said:

It does do 0-60 in six seconds, though...

Is that fast?  

[Prophet Zacharia]

1 minute ago, Dirtyhip said:

Is that fast?  

Not for an ebike.

[maddmaxx ★]

5 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

Is that fast?  

Not for a top fuel dragster.   

 

(0 to 100 in 0.8 seconds)  Not on premium fuel though but on nitromethane which it burns at the rate of about 15 gal per 1/4 mile.

 

 

 

 

Sorry.  Just had to do that.

[Rattlecan ★]

1 hour ago, LoneWolf said:

Soooo.yeah.

 

I had to sell at least one car. And as I looked at my paid-off Honda Civic, and late-WoLW's Subaru, while either would do, I really like driving, and neither was "exactly" what I wanted.  The Civic was great, but wasn't a hatch (really useful at this point). The Subaru is great in almost everything it does, but lacks a certain zip I really enjoy from the Civic. I mean, verve. Panache. So I started toying around to see if any hatchbacks checked fun and (semi) sensible at the same time.

Volkswagen Golf GTI? No. Repair and maintenance costs, requires premium fuel, pricier than I'd want.

Honda Civic Sport Touring? Sadly, no. There's an issue with the turbo engine with gas mixing with the oil (especially if the car doesn't get fully warm) that hasn't been resolved, and can cause premature engine wear and problems (my Civic is not the turbo; I went with the i-VTEC engine, slightly less sporty, but fun and proven tech at the time).

Subaru WRX?  Not a hatchback, requires premium fuel.

Wait...what's this? Made only two years ('19-20) in the States and getting a little hard to find...but...(research)...there's a year-old certified pre-owned one with under 8,000 miles 90 minutes away? And it's in one of the two best colors for the year? How did I miss the existence of this vehicle?

The 2019 Hyundai Elantra GT N-Line "warm" hatch in Summit gray, with the Tech package. 1.6L, 201hp, 195ft-lbs of torque -on regular gas. 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission with manual mode. 0-60 in 6 seconds. Tons of rear cargo room. And with the tech package, more features than you can shake a stick at. I had to try it and find out.

It sticks like glue to the pavement in hairpin turns and pins a smile on your face wider than the Joker, and it's still practical, reasonably priced, and has everything. 8-speaker Infiniti sound system with subwoofer. Ventilated leather seats. Six-way power-adjust drivers seat with adjustable lumbar support. Carplay. Adaptive cruise control, and a bajillion other things and it looks like a million bucks and costs less than a Volkswagen GTI.

So yeah, @Philander Seabury The tattoo was kind of a part one.  This will be part two (final); the other two cars will go to good homes. I posted the Civic last night on Craigslist and I think I already have seven excited e-mails before I can even get it cleaned up and grab the title out of the file drawer.

My pre Covid part time retirement job was driving the courtesy shuttle for the local Hyundai dealer. Far and away, the vast majority of the customers I came in contact with were extremely satisfied with their cars, and with Hyundai as a brand.

 We are on our third Kia product, which are only cosmetically distinct from their Hyundai sisters, and we have also been very satisfied.

[Longjohn ★]

Petite takes more time than that when she decides to get a different car.

[Ralphie ★]

35 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

Petite takes more time than that when she decides to get a different car.

Nice find!  Yeah, holy crap, that was fast! 

[Airehead]

A nice thing to do for safe and semi fun transportation. 

[BuffJim]

1 hour ago, Rattlecan said:

My pre Covid part time retirement job was driving the courtesy shuttle for the local Hyundai dealer. Far and away, the vast majority of the customers I came in contact with were extremely satisfied with their cars, and with Hyundai as a brand.

 We are on our third Kia product, which are only cosmetically distinct from their Hyundai sisters, and we have also been very satisfied.

That is a part time job I wouldn’t mind for retirement. Hope to work full time till I’m 64. Need to work full time till I’m 62. 
My midlife crisis was in 2009 at age 46. Quit my job and spent some of my retirement dough to pedal cross country. No regerts. 

[JerrySTL ★]

2 hours ago, Rattlecan said:

We are on our third Kia product, which are only cosmetically distinct from their Hyundai sisters, and we have also been very satisfied.

Our family has owned a total of 4 Kias and 2 Hyundais. Very dependable. My daughter's 2010 Soul has over 200k miles on it. It did need a transmission rebuild about 20K miles ago. 

[LoneWolf]

1 hour ago, Philander Seabury said:

Nice find!  Yeah, holy crap, that was fast! 

1) I research well, and I do it quite fast. @Rattlecanis right, reviews on Hyundai, their owner satisfaction, and current vehicle reliability are quite high.

2) This vehicle is only being sold in the US for 2020, and the previous 2019 year. Hyundai is going with the Kona mini-SUV as their future product here; this car (known as the Hyundai i30 everywhere else except North America -it will still be sold everywhere else) will no longer be sold on the continent due to Americans panning hatchbacks for SUVs . So I had a modest window. It's also why I added the Platinum WRAP warranty for 10 years/100,000 miles bumper-to-bumper. If a part becomes scarce, it's Hyundai's issue, not mine. That said, the powertrain for his car has been used in several other Hyundai models and has a decent track record, better than can be said of Honda's 1.5L turbo used in the Civic and CR-V.

3) Finding them isn't the easiest due to #2. In Kalamazoo they had a 2020 one but without the tech package, which has all of the best options. the next closest 2020 I saw was in Downer's Grove IL, and Gurnee IL after that. I was going to test the Kalamazoo one to see if I wanted to drive that far out; then I added 2019 as a year, and this was the only one that popped up that was certified pre-owned. It had the lowest mileage of all of the 2019 models listed, and was also the closest distance from home and had the Tech package. I wasn't planning for sure on buying it, but the test drive totally sold me. I also saved around $4-5,000 buy buying a one-year-old model instead.

[Longjohn ★]

I always liked their design when I see one (I see one at the LGS quite a bit). I never buy a vehicle until the one I have is used up.

[shootingstar]

4 hours ago, LoneWolf said:

So yeah, @Philander Seabury The tattoo was kind of a part one.  This will be part two (final); the other two cars will go to good homes. I posted the Civic last night on Craigslist and I think I already have seven excited e-mails before I can even get it cleaned up and grab the title out of the file drawer.

So that level of interest...was because of pricing or maybe people already were thinking of a used car for a long time.

[groupw]

 Nice find, LW! My brother started buying Hyundai about the time I started on Mazda. We’ve both been happy with our choices. Glad to see Hyundai is starting to focus on the driving experience. That is the only thing that kept me from looking at them more. 

[donkpow]

Sporty but practical.

[Scrapr ★]

Maybe i missed it. Let's see the tattoo (please)

I got one to memorialize WoScrapr. It is the position of the planets on the day we met

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1050pezw7mawbdb/2020-03-19 20.06.59.jpg?dl=0

[LoneWolf]

5 hours ago, shootingstar said:

So that level of interest...was because of pricing or maybe people already were thinking of a used car for a long time.

I eventually had 19 e-mails in the span of less than 24 hours.

The 10th generation Civic is a popular car.  It's now sale-pending to an 18yo who has saved his shekels, and isn't going to sleep tonight (his mother accompanied him, and I guarantee he's excited as all get-out).  First person to take a look; going to finish everything tomorrow.

I priced it at $9500 which isn't high and isn't rock bottom either; it's an average of the Edmund's values for  a clean condition car of its type. I'll be paying off the Subaru with that money, then selling it shortly thereafter. Hopefully the AWD will be a selling point just before Michigan winter.

[LoneWolf]

4 hours ago, Scrapr said:

Maybe i missed it. Let's see the tattoo (please)

I got one to memorialize WoScrapr. It is the position of the planets on the day we met

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1050pezw7mawbdb/2020-03-19 20.06.59.jpg?dl=0

• 

[shootingstar]

23 minutes ago, LoneWolf said:

I eventually had 19 e-mails in the span of less than 24 hours.

The 10th generation Civic is a popular car.  It's now sale-pending to an 18yo who has saved his shekels, and isn't going to sleep tonight (his mother accompanied him, and I guarantee he's excited as all get-out.  First person to take a look; going to finish everything tomorrow.

I priced it at $9500 which isn't high and isn't rock bottom either; it's an average of the Edmund's values for  a clean condition car of its type. I'll be paying off the Subaru with that money, then selling it shortly thereafter. Hopefully the AWD will be a selling point just before Michigan winter.

kinda cool for his lst car. Good that his mother was there to give an opinion for him.

[LoneWolf]

15 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

kinda cool for his lst car. Good that his mother was there to give an opinion for him.

I think she was there to ask the sensible questions. And I gave them everything, including a rundown of the quirks and idiosyncrasies that come with any 10th-gen Civic (there are a few).

And yes, very cool for his first car. Mine was a 1983 Mercury Marquis V6 with 58,000 miles on it, and it looked nice (luxury cream yellow with a brown fabric hardtop), but wasn't anywhere near as spiffy. Getting Apple CarPlay, remote start, and a bunch of nice features on your first car? Pretty spiffy if you ask me.

[Kirby]

Congratulations, very cool. Glad you were able to find what you wanted .

[LoneWolf]

Civic is sold. LWoLW's Subaru is paid off in the next 24 hours once everything posts. Then time to get it prepped.

[Airehead]

1 hour ago, LoneWolf said:

Civic is sold. LWoLW's Subaru is paid off in the next 24 hours once everything posts. Then time to get it prepped.

I hope the new driver has many happy adventures. 

[LoneWolf]

19 minutes ago, Airehead said:

I hope the new driver has many happy adventures. 

I know he's excited, that's for sure. I have a feeling he spent several sleepless nights waiting for this to finish.

I'm happy I could work well with his parents and him to see it through.

[Randomguy]

10 minutes ago, LoneWolf said:

I know he's excited, that's for sure. I have a feeling he spent several sleepless nights waiting for this to finish.

I'm happy I could work well with his parents and him to see it through.

Can wolves actually drive?

[LoneWolf]

Just now, Randomguy said:

Can wolves actually drive?

Do bears go potty in the woods?

[Further]

Mid life I bought motorcycles

Old farthood I'm into tractors

[LoneWolf]

Well, my parents bought the Subaru from me, and sold their 2009 Toyota Matrix, which I helped them get sold within 48 hours on Craigslist as well. The one-owner, 85,500 miles bit probably didn't hurt.

That let me pay off the Hyundai, which now has winter 17" wheels (one size down) and snows (Bridgestone Blizzak WS90s, sized to keep the odometer the same).

So, all auto loose ends tied up.  Added myself some really nice molded-to-match all season floor mats, and a rubber cargo liner.  An adapter to allow wireless Apple CarPlay.

And a radar detector. 

[ChrisL]

53 minutes ago, LoneWolf said:

And a radar detector. 

Those are still a thing?  Back in the day I defeated many a radar detector by pulsing the radar gun on specific cars. By the time they picked up the radar it was too late.  

Im sure tech on both sides has improved though.

[LoneWolf]

Just now, ChrisL said:

Those are still a thing?  Back in the day I defeated many a radar detector by pulsing the radar gun on specific cars. By the time they picked up the radar it was too late.  

Im sure tech on both sides has improved though.

It has.  And if your detector has long enough range, it can detect an officer pulsing the gun on cars a mile or two ahead of you.

Laser isn't defeatable without light-band shifters. But K-band and Ka-band radar (still the most common bands in the US) is very doable. And with GPS-enabled detectors, you can lock out red-light or speed monitoring signs, or door-opening sensors. by tying their alerts to a GPS location. Today's decent models are far better than the top-end one I had back in 2003.

[Bikeguy]

3 minutes ago, LoneWolf said:

It has.  And if your detector has long enough range, it can detect an officer pulsing the gun on cars a mile or two ahead of you.

So... which one did you buy?   WoBG still uses the one I got her back in 2012 a Escort Passport 8500 X50.   Lets just say... it's probably saved me money over the years. 

Me... you don't need one in a Prius.  

[LoneWolf]

1 minute ago, Bikeguy said:

So... which one did you buy?   WoBG still uses the one I got her back in 2012 a Escort Passport 8500 X50.   Lets just say... it's probably saved me money over the years. 

Me... you don't need one in a Prius.  

I had the Passport 8500 in 2003, and it saved my bacon several times.

After a lot of research, I bought the Uniden R3. You can go more expensive, but the R3 is mid-priced, and has as long of a forward range as the ones above it. Uniden's R7, Escort's Redline 360c, and the Valentine One R2 (fully redesigned model) are up top, but for the extra, they mainly provide directional arrows (multiple antennas; nice but radar is less likely to come from behind, and directional is nice but not necessary), and the Escort has auto-lockout, meaning that if you pass a false source multiple times (e.g., store door openers, garage doors, etc.) it will auto-add them to its false alerts. Mine, you have to press a button twice to add the lockout, no big deal.

Comparing a Uniden R3 to the Passport 9500 Xi (which replaced the 8500 X50 and is still available but now lower-end), the R3 has a considerable edge on range. About the only thing the R3 doesn't do is it doesn't go to the bottom of the 24MHz range, which is used (in just a couple of states) for low-frequency short range stationary speed cams linked to ticket enforcement.

Here in Michigan, red-light cameras and speed cameras are considered an actual violation of existing traffic law, so we don't have them.  I'm looking at locking out the entire 24MHz band, because car blind-spot monitoring systems commonly use it as well, and it will greatly cut down on false alerts if I don't travel outside of the state.

It's worth looking at a newer detector. Good sites for review:

radarbusters.com

vortexradar.com

[LoneWolf]

Note: to @bikeman564™ and @Kzoo

The po-po had a collective speed enforcement event the other day, and I got some K-band alerts on 24.4MHz.

So, might lock out 24.1xxMHz, but not all of 24MHz here in Michigan. I wasn't speeding at the time (several other cars passed over in multiple locations on my drive home), but it certainly was useful information.

[Parr8hed]

I think that is a pretty sporty ride.  Looks to be very nice.  But I cannot call that a midlife crisis.  Way too practical.  

A midlife crisis should only seat 2, be red, convertible, or at least be a 70's muscle car with a hemi or a 454 chevy.

[Square Wheels]

15 minutes ago, Parr8hed said:

A midlife crisis should only seat 2, be red, convertible, or at least be a 70's muscle car with a hemi or a 454 chevy.

 

 

I came close.  It seats 4, and is orange.  Yes, I do have a small penis.

[bikeman564™]

19 minutes ago, Parr8hed said:

70's muscle car with a454 chevy.

'70 Chevelle SS 454, is a car I've always wanted

[maddmaxx ★]

I think I must have spent my midlife crisis when I was young.

66 Barracuda factory race car, 62 Corvette transplanted 350 engine, 68 Dodge Dart transplanted big block engine, 69 Dodge Daytona Charger 440

If I had any one of them today I'd sell it.  One would buy me a new house.  The others would easily buy womaxx a nice Rav4.

[Square Wheels]

55 minutes ago, Parr8hed said:

at least be a 70's muscle car with a hemi or a 454 chevy.

Today, much smaller engines put out much higher horsepower.  Even my little 6 cylinder have 320hp.

[BR46]

On 11/1/2020 at 11:11 AM, Airehead said:

A nice thing to do for safe and semi fun transportation. 

I see what you did there. ...you used the word safe and fun in the same sentence. 

 

[Parr8hed]

13 minutes ago, Square Wheels said:

Today, much smaller engines put out much higher horsepower.  Even my little 6 cylinder have 320hp.

Oh I agree 100%.  Hell, my Honda Accord would have probably given it a run for it's money.  But it just wasn't nearly as cool!

[Parr8hed]

57 minutes ago, Square Wheels said:

I came close.  It seats 4, and is orange.  Yes, I do have a small penis.

That's a pretty dope ride.  Not my cup of tea, but pretty dope.  

[Parr8hed]

My midlife crisis.  I think I am buying it.  My BIL wants to sell it.  It's got some miles, but I know how it's been taken care of.  And this one would be strictly to pull the camper.  F350 Fx4, crew cab, Lariat, 8 ft bed, 6.7 powerstroke diesel.  I will keep my pickup to use as a car.  This thing pulls the camper like a dream.  Had to keep checking the mirror to make sure it was still back there.  

[Kzoo]

11 hours ago, LoneWolf said:

Note: to @bikeman564™ and @Kzoo

The po-po had a collective speed enforcement event the other day, and I got some K-band alerts on 24.4MHz.

So, might lock out 24.1xxMHz, but not all of 24MHz here in Michigan. I wasn't speeding at the time (several other cars passed over in multiple locations on my drive home), but it certainly was useful information.

@LoneWolf, my daily commute is from Kzoo to GR on 131.  I don't use a detector but I also don't drive the speed limit (except on exit ramps).  I have seen an increase in troopers the last few days sitting in the turnarounds.  I haven't seen anyone pulled over.  I passed one yesterday at 80 mph and neither one of us batted an eye.  Today I passed one at 77 but I was just coming up to speed.  I'm probably averaging low to mid 80's most drives.  If I remember correctly, you do 196 which I seldom drive.  I have no idea of the enforcement there.